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Will Treaty
Bio Early life Will was born on an unknown farm somewhere in Aspienne Fief, His father had died in the war against Morgarath, saving ranger Halt's life from a group of Wargals. His mother died while protecting Will from two bandits, leaving him an orphan. He was taken to Redmont and left with a note saying ''"His mother died in childbirth. His father died a hero. Please care for him. His name is Will" ''and brought up as a castle ward, his last name unknown. He made connections with his fellow wardmates, Horace Altman, Alyss Mainwaring, Jenny Dalby, and George Carter. He and Horace grew up as enemies, and often got into physical fights, which Horace usually won because of Will's slight stature, and verbal fights, which Will usually won because of his wit. Will also was a bit of a troublemaker, occasionally pulling pranks on the castle such as stealing a cake setting in the sun and releasing a male and female rabbits to roam. These pranks seem to have given him instinctive abilities at moving around open spaces unseen and being a good climber. Choosing Day At the age of 15, he and his wardmates were able to attend choosing day, where the Craftmasters of Redmont could choose individuals to take in as apprentices. Will was particularly worried about this, as he wanted to be chosen for Battleschool so he could follow in the footsteps of his father, who Will knew nothing about except that he was a heroic knight. However, he was rather small in stature, a fact frequently pointed out by Horace. When the day came, they stood in the Baron's office. They had to line up in height order, and Will was forced to stand at the end, being the shortest. When his turn came last, his request for battleschool seemed to surprise Baron Arald, who stated that he was a bit slight for battleschool. Sir Rodney, the battlemaster, considered it but eventually denied his request to join. When asked what sort of talents he had, he responded with being a good climber and Master Chubb, the cook craftsmaster, pointed out angrily that he had demonstrated those skills a few years previously when he had snatched a cake from the kitchens. In a desperate attempt to be apprenticed by someone and not be forced into a life of farm work, he requested for horse school, but was immediately denied because of his size. He looked around in plea but all of the craftmasters shook their heads. Halt, the mysterious ranger, then walked suddenly up and handed Arald a note and spoke in his ear. The Baron nodded and told will to see him tomorrow to hear his decision. Will, however, was too curious to wait. He positioned himself by a tree for hours until the sun went down, and prepared himself to break into Arald's office. He swiftly went across the open field, demonstrating an already impressive show of unseen movement, a skill valued by the rangers. He came by the wall and waited for the sentry to pass, then climbed quickly up the castle wall, using just his hands and feet on the stone edges, and into the window of Arald's office. Seeing the note on the desk, he approached and reached to take it, but a hand came out of the dark and seized his wrist. He looked up to see the grizzled ranger Halt above him. Fearing the worst as he was lead to Arald's apartment by Halt, he was surprised when Arald seemed quite untroubled and let him read the note. He unfolded it and read: ''"The Boy Will has the potential to be trained as a Ranger. I will accept him as my apprentice." ''Will was quite confused and nervous, confusing the Baron as he imagined Will being overjoyed. Will expressed his feelings about the rangers, but Arald dismissed the rumors about the Rangers being sorcerers and directed him to be at Halt's cabin in the morning. Will complied, starting to feel a bit hopeful. Beginning apprenticeship Will left the borders of the Castle Redmont and went to Halt's cabin in the morning. He learned a bit about the rangers and past kings, and then was told that he was to do housework. After a few days of doing chores around the cabin and not doing anything exciting, Halt finally had Will come outside and he introduced him to the ranger's weapons. He gave Will his first recurve bow and double knife scabbard, and Will was quite happy with them. When handed his bow, Will was eager to try it out. Halt let him have it and he attempted to fire an arrow at a tree, holding the string between his thumb and pointer finger. He fired and the arrow flew a few feet, while the leather string smacked his forearm, leaving a welt. Halt then explained how to properly hold the weapon and gave him his gauntlet to protect his skin. Will had learned a lesson in being patient. Halt and Will were starting to form a relationship as they became used to each other, which took time due to Halt's withdrawn and unreadable nature. Instead of doing housework, Will's time was turned to practicing without end with his bow and throwing knife. He also learned much about history and geography, vital parts of a Ranger's job. As well he trained constantly at traveling unseen and making as little noise as possible. As his skills started to progress, Halt announced that they were taking a little trip. He took him out to a small horse stable, run by a man called Old Bob. It turned out that the stable actually cared for specially trained ranger horses. He was introduced to Halt's horse, Abelard. Then he was given his own horse, called Tug. When he tried to mount it, he was immediately bucked off. Bob then told him about the ranger horses and how they responded to a code phrase only their masters knew, his horse's was "Do you mind?" As more time went by, gradually Will and Halt became closer in their relationship, Halt now calling him by his name and not "boy". On Harvest Day, will met up with his former wardmates excluding Horace, who was late. When Horace did show, he became angry that they had already started eating Jenny's pies before he arrived and started arguing with Will. They soon started fighting, rolling around the ground, before Sir Rodney angrily stopped them. Forced to shake hands, they swore they would pick up where they left off in the future. As winter came in, Halt and Will were out practicing tracking when they noticed the tracks of a large boar who had crashed through the area. They alerted Baron Arald and a group of knights was set up to eliminate it. Halt and Will joined the group, Will quite uncertain about the situation. Horace was also there, feeling equally nervous. The boar was taken care of by a younger knight, but as the knight was praised another boar came crashing through the brush. Horace instinctively stepped in the path between it and Will, while Will attempted to shoot it. Both arrows hit but did not cause any fatal damage. As the boar approached for the kill, Halt shot it in the heart and it immediately dropped dead. After this series of events, Will and Horace became friends, both feeling sorry for how they acted in the past and feeling gratitude for each other. Will became popular around the kingdom after this, the story of how he had tried to save Horace stretched to sounding like a larger than life tale, making Will feel awkward. However Horace's three bullies at battleschool believed Will's saving of Horace was a disgrace, and after beating Horace up with canes, came to Halt's cabin to attack Will. Caught by surprised, he was taken down, but Halt stopped them and forced them to fight Horace, armed with a training sword. He easily took all three of them down and they were all expelled from battleschool. Hunt for the Kalkara Halt and Will went to the annual Ranger's Gathering, meeting up with Halt's former apprentice Gilan. However, upon arrival, they were informed that the Gathering had been canceled due to the knowledge that the two remaining Kalkara were on the loose. Immediately making a decision, Halt brought Will and Gilan with him on a hunt for the Kalkara. They traveled across the plain of the Stone Flutes trying to find these two. then once they found footsteps curving around realized that the Kalkara were trying to track them as well. Read Book 1 for more information